Everest Infrastructure Partners, whose headquarters are in Pittsburgh, announced Wednesday it would be expanding its European platform by acquiring Lisbon, Portugal-based Blue Sites Telco.
Founded in 2017, Blue Sites Telco is the largest communications tower lease aggregation platform of its kind in Portugal.
“We are excited to enter Europe in partnership with funds committed by Peppertree Capital Management,” Mike Mackey, president of Everest, said. “The Portuguese market for communications infrastructure will continue its stable and healthy growth over the next decade as 5G deployments and densification in urban and suburban clusters continue to occur. The acquisition of the Blue Sites platform and its country-wide portfolio of assets is a testament of Everest’s continued disciplined capital allocation strategy to pursue growth and high-quality cash flow in markets with stable currency and rule of law.”
The company named Flavio Siqueira to lead the company as its European president. Siqueira has over 20 years of international executive leadership in the wireless infrastructure industry and has started operations in multiple geographies and performed transactions in more than 20 countries, the company said.
“I’m very excited to join Everest’s expansion into Portugal with the acquisition of Blue Sites and addition of their experienced team while all major carriers are actively deploying 5G, densifying and expanding coverage in the market,” Siqueira said. “As a buyer and partner of choice, Everest will present itself as an alternative to the ongoing critical network investment of all mobile operators in the market, currently consolidated and controlled mostly by two infrastructure players. Retaining Blue Sites leadership team and their market expertise present seamless integration and operational continuity that will be combined with Everest’s innovative business model and management team that has enabled substantial value creation as a tower owner and operator for many years in the U.S., and more recently with platform launches in Australia and New Zealand.”
Everest Infrastructure is one of the fastest growing tower companies in the world, with over $1.5 billion in capital raised and in its fourth international markets, the company said.
“5G networks are enabling incredible innovation and mobile application availability for wireless users throughout the world,” Mackey said. “Now that we are seeing the evolution of wearable technologies and beginning of AI, both poised to be part of our day-to-day life, the ultra-high-speed and low-latency connectivity enabled by 5G mobility will require substantial amounts of global investment capital. Everest will continue to be a leader on the infrastructure side of this marketplace for many years to come and we are very pleased to announce this European expansion.”